"Are you sure they are the right people?" The commander whispered to the prince.
"Of course they are. Do you think just anyone else would appear at the right time mentioned on the note?" The prince replied.
"But… these guys… their clothes and appearance… aren't they from the…" The commander was certainly nervous after seeing the northern tribes' people.
"Shush!" The prince warned the commander.
"Do not speak that which you cannot bear to hold against. Times change and allies change with that." The prince said in a low voice. "Do you not want to survive this?" he asked.
The commander certainly felt a bit surprised at the sudden change in the prince's attitude but gritted his teeth and nodded his head.
'While this is unexpected… the tribals have not attacked us yet. Just what did the prince do to make this possible?' the commander wondered.
The remaining soldiers that had come with the commander were still in confusion, but kept their tongues in check. They knew that while their commander might have some freedom in speaking to the prince like this, they certainly didn't.
If they weren't prudent like this, they would have long since died. There was a reason why they were still here, while their former companions were chosen to be 'sacrifices'.
Lin Mu who was watching them all, was a bit surprised but also impressed by the tribesmen.
"Their demeanor is certainly different." Lin Mu muttered.
"They don't smell like the invader either." Little Shrubby added.
"Right… they are actually 'clean'." Lin Mu said, not sensing any muddied Qi of the pills of grace on them either.
Observing the discipline and methods that they operated on, Lin Mu could tell that these men were cut from a different piece of cloth. Their choice of maintaining silence with the prince and the soldiers was a wise one.
Lose lips and free conversations can often cost one's head in these kinds of situations. After all, knowledge was power and the less one let others know about them, the greater advantage they would hold over them.
'Considering what I heard from the northern tribesmen in their hideout, I can safely assume that they are from a higher division of the tribe's warriors.' Lin Mu reckoned.
Lin Mu could easily tell that these tribesmen weren't that strong either. The man who seemed to be their leader was at the Nascent soul realm, but the rest were only at the core condensation realm.
He could very well eliminate them at a mere thought, but the current situation demanded for something else.
The tribesmen took the prince and his followers about fifty kilometers away from where they originally were. Lin Mu also kept his senses alert, looking for anything that might be hiding here.
'I've already checked this place, and didn't discover anything. It's certainly hidden well.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The leader of the northern tribesmen raised his hand, gesturing all to stop.
He turned around and looked at the prince.
"Where is the toll?" The man asked.
"Isn't that supposed to be given after a safe passage?" The prince asked.
"No… that was never specified." The leader stated.
The prince furrowed his brows and felt doubtful.
"I can't fully trust you to just give it to you right away. What if you do not keep the promise?" the prince said.
Lin Mu was a bit impressed by the prince's words.
'He might be a deserter, but he's certainly not weak.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
"This prince might have just made the best possible choice that was presented to him at his current situation. Everyone looks to survive, and he is simply doing that. Sometimes doing that might make one a coward, but it will allow one to live." Xukong stated.
Lin Mu thought upon the words for a bit, before internalizing it for later. He knew the words held great weight, and could be pondered on for a long time. But now was not the right place or time for it.
"HUMPH! Do you think we will break the promise officiated by the elders?" The female member of the group scoffed.
While she seemed a bit upset, the leader and the rest still had the straight faces as if they didn't care.
~Sigh~
"The toll isn't the price to let you escape, it is the price to enter the very passage itself. Without the toll, even we cannot enter it." The leader said.
Hearing this, the prince was surprised.
'Not like I'm in any position to debate here.'
He thought for a moment before nodding his head. "Alright." He said before turning to the commander.
"Take out all of them." The prince stated.
"You heard him!" The commander spoke to the rest of the soldiers.
"YES COMMANDER!" they all replied in unison before taking out small bags that were hidden in their armor.
The bags were made from some kind of beast hide and there were fine inscriptions written on it. As soon as they appeared, Lin Mu's eyes locked onto them.
"Oh? A sealed spatial storage tool? No wonder I didn't detect these bags on them." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
The sealed spatial treasures made it so that no spatial fluctuations were released from them. But it also quite literally 'sealed' them. Making them unable to be used.
The soldiers used their blades and slashed the bags open.
~THUD~ THUD~ THUD~ THUD~
In the next moment, several bodies fell out of the bags. There were exactly ninety five of them, just the exact number that were missing from the group. And that was not all. Lin Mu discovered something else surprising.
'They're actually alive? There's no way they would have stayed alive for this long in a spatial storage treasure like that. Not to mention the seals would have had to be broken if they were to be given air at any time.' Lin Mu thought in surprise.
"Kaja, check them if they're all 'fresh'. The dead ones won't be of any use." The leader spoke.
The man named Kaja quickly did as was told and checked on all the soldiers that were kept unconscious.
"They're all fine, leader. The dose of the Life Waning Frost Powder was just right." Kaja replied.
"Good. Get them prepared. We'll open the gate in exactly ten minutes." The leader said.
His companions then gathered the unconscious men and placed them around in a unique pattern. Lin Mu who saw this pattern, found it to be familiar.
"Hang on… isn't this a… Gate reversal formation?" Lin Mu identified.
This method of placement was used for the Gate Reversal Formation. It was nothing but a counterpart to a locking formation and could be used in many different variations. But the basics of it were the same and other layers would be put on top of it to make it complex.
Usually, the materials used for the base were spirit stones, formation flags, or even certain kinds of herbs. But Lin Mu had a guess about what was going to be used here and his expression darkened.
At the very least, Lin Mu could take solace in the fact that the soldiers would have been killed as deserters anyway. Thus, he could just sit back and watch them be killed.
Soon the unconscious soldiers were placed in the pattern and everything as ready.
"NOW!" the leader of the northern tribesmen ordered.
The four other members all took out a talisman and threw it out.
~SHUA~
The four talismans flew to four corners of the formation that had been outlined and glowed in a red light.
~WOOOO~
A strange wind started to blow and a black smoke came out of the talismans. The smoke formed a wall around the entire area and hid everything that was behind it. In the white snow, it looked glaringly abstract.
The smoke filled the area but avoided the prince and his companions. The same was said for the northern tribesmen too. The sacrificed soldiers though were drowned in the smoke and started to wither at a visible rate.
Soon they were turned into nothing more than dessicated corpses.
Lin Mu's brows furrowed, as he knew very well where this method had come from.
Once all the corpses were drained to the limit, the smoke started to condense. It turned into a black ink liquid that fell down to the ground. Wherever it went, the snow melted while the ground below it was stained.
The liquid flowed in a certain pattern and formed an array.
~SHUA~
Once the array was completed, it let out a humming sound and a rumbling sound was heard.
Lin Mu felt spirit Qi fluctuations coming from it at that moment and knew that the isolating formation was now deactivating.
~HONG~
A minute later, the formation array was fully activated and the isolating formation disappeared.
~FLICKER~
The air turned fuzzy and blurry. The hills that were situated in the front turned into mist and disappeared.
"What!?" the prince and the commander were left stunned.
Lin Mu was the same and had not expected it to be like this.
"The passage… it's not a tunnel and nor is it underground." Lin Mu muttered in disbelief.
"So the passage is nothing but another route into past the mountains?" The prince said in surprise.
"Indeed." The leader nodded his head.
"How… was this hidden? The experts used to do regular checks here if I recall it correctly? If it was made, they would have found out." The commander couldn't help but wonder.
Since he was in the royal army, he knew of the protocols that were followed at the frontier.
"What makes you think this was built recently? This has existed since the times of our ancestors."
